Questions about account billing, our credits system, expirations, and monthly vs annual payments.
When you activate a subscription, you can choose between subscription level, as well as monthly or annual billing. On your renewal date we’ll issue you new credits that have an expiration date that changes depending on your billing cycle.
How does monthly billing work?
When you select monthly billing, we will bill you every month on the same day, and issue you new credits.
Those credits expire in 90 days, so there is a slight “rollover” effect. We do this to make it easier to manage irregular work cycles (eg if your team builds most briefs every 2-3 months). This means you can pay for 3 months of service and still have all of your credits available until the end of month 3 when the first credits start to expire.
How does annual billing work?
When you select annual billing, we bill you once per year on the same renewal date, and we issue you *all* of your credits for the year.
So if you’re on our plan with 12 monthly credits and select annual billing, you’ll get all 144 credits right up front. This is great for teams that have variable credit needs from month to month.
Even though you get all of your credits upfront, we recommend you don’t run all of your reports at once. It’s better to run them as you need them so that you get the freshest data possible.
Which credits get used up first when I run reports?
We always use the oldest expiring credits available first. When we issue longer term credits, like the 10 credits we give to new accounts, those are typically set to expire one year after we issue them.
Can I buy a one-off “pack” of brief credits?
Maybe. We don’t offer a self serve version of this yet, however let us know what you’re trying to do and we can give you a few options.
We have a better option for most scenarios, which is to simply "Refresh" your credits by resetting your billing date to today, issuing your normal batch of credits, and then resetting your next invoice date to a month in the future. You can do that yourself with this option in the billing dashboard:
If you’re on an annual plan and run out of credits, we can help you reset your renewal date to simply refresh your credits before your annual renewal date. You can do this yourself with the same "Refresh My Credits" button shown above - annual plan billing dates will automatically renew one year after you click the button.
If those options don't work for your situation, ping us in the live chat and we can get you set up somehow.
What if I need more credits this month but not after that?
If you just need to jump up in credit balance for a single month, and you’re on monthly billing, one option is to simply upgrade for that month, and downgrade before the month is over, and you’ll have 90 days to use the extra credits from that month of service.
Do you offer plans not listed on the pricing menu?
Yes, if you have a specific number of credits you need per month or year, we can typically set you up on a custom plan that will meet your needs.
Can I pay by Check or EFT?
Yes - once you activate a subscription using credit card at signup (even a $50 plan level), you can change your default payment method to bank transfer options as supported by Stripe.
This may result in delays in receiving your monthly credits by a couple days, because our system issues credits immediately upon "payment success." However this should be consistent month-to-month after you set it up.
If your team is unable to make an initial payment via credit card to activate your subscription, we can send you a $1 hidden plan option to activate with using a personal credit card, after which you can upgrade to your desired plan level and remove your personal card from the payment methods.
Can I pay in my local currency?
If Stripe lets you do it, then yes, but it will most likely incur a foreign transaction fee or something like that. Payments will be charged in USD each month so may result in different local currency prices each month. You can find other international payment questions here.
Can I pay with crypto or Bitcoin?
Nope.
